Pepper-Pot: A Scene in the Philadelphia Market

Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Main Building

Pepper-Pot: A Scene in the Philadelphia Market

1811

John Lewis Krimmel (American (born Germany), 1786–1821)

John Lewis Krimmel immigrated to the United States only a year before composing this scene of the market stalls of Philadelphia. With its fascinating contrasts of race, social and economic class, age, and character, Pepper-Pot reveals the artist's delight in his new environment and captures Philadelphia's unique charms. This is the first oil painted by one of the earliest American genre painters and it is equally exceptional for its depiction of a freed person of color at work in the city. Placed at the center of this composition, the soup vendor, known through many early nineteenth-century accounts of Philadelphia, would bellow to passersby, "Pepper pot, smoking hot!"

Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Object Details

Title:

Pepper-Pot: A Scene in the Philadelphia Market

Date:

1811

Artist:

John Lewis Krimmel (American (born Germany), 1786–1821)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

19 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (49.5 x 39.4 cm) Framed: 24 1/2 × 20 1/2 inches (62.2 × 52.1 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Leisenring, Jr., 2001

Accession Number:

2001-196-1

Geography:

Made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America

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Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Main Building

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